


in years

by nigiyakapepper



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Feels, Flash Forward, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Growing Old Together, M/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 05:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15112343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigiyakapepper/pseuds/nigiyakapepper
Summary: Keith and Krolia spend time together on the space whale, making sense of the snippets of the past and future they see.





	in years

**Author's Note:**

> the additional tags, ensemble and allurance are all flashback/forward related. the main dish is keith and krolia talking about shiro lol. i wanted to figure out how keith could've prepared himself for his fight.

It’s one of the hottest days of the year, when the wooden buildings the Old Town takes pride in are at their driest. It’s also the one day every year Keith knows he’s an absolute mess. More than usual. Much more than usual.

“If you could…if you could choose the way you’d go, how would it be?”

Shiro fixes him a look that’s a little confused, a little bemused. “What brought this on?”

Keith gives a helpless, agitated shrug. “I dunno. Don’t you ever just…think about it?”

The sunset is breathtaking from here, over the cliffs and red sand that’s made up Keith’s entire world. Shiro leans on his hover bike, looking contemplative. Keith tries unwind his shoulders, snap his spine straight from its habitual hunch like the Garrison’s drilling into him these days. “Nevermind I asked,” is on the tip of his tongue when Shiro answers.

“Peaceful,” he says, gaze still on the horizon. “Surrounded by my loved ones.”

Keith looks at him, not knowing what to say. He does move to sit beside him on the wing, though, where Shiro is comfortably tucked between it and fuselage.

“Did I ever tell you I was raised by my grandad?” Shiro glances at him, and after Keith shakes his head, his eyes are on the horizon once more. “It was just the two of us, in California. I mean, grandma might’ve been there too, but she died before I could walk. My parents, well, they were somewhere else.”

Keith swallows. He isn’t sure where Shiro’s going with this. He isn’t sure he wants to know. He’s only known him for, what, half a year since the man told him he’d be incredible for the Galaxy Garrison’s flight course? They’ve talked, and talked, and talked, of course, but this is a little…what even is it.

“There wasn’t any fuss how he went, don’t worry,” Shiro says brightly, misinterpreting the pinched look on Keith’s face for something else. “It was the summer before my first day at the Garrison. We spent his last week together in the hospital. A lot of people visited, neighbors mostly. His friends who weren’t already dead.”

Keith’s unable to contain a huff of laughter and Shiro smiles.

“He told me if there’s one thing he wished he could’ve done, it was to come to my first launch. And visit his family in Okinawa one last time.” A beat. “Okay, so maybe that’s two. But yeah, I guess I’d like to go how grandad did. Old and happy.”

Shiro looks at him. The lines of his face are soft and gold-edged, almost red in the setting sun. “What about you? Have you thought of how you’d…uh, like to go?”

Keith closes his eyes against a memory of fire, so huge he could see it from the second story of his childhood home. The sky had been black with soot for hours when he received the call from the Fire Department. His dad had died on duty. Today is the fourth anniversary.

He opens them again. “I dunno.”

Somehow, he can’t see himself going any way else but the same, too.

\- - -

_“Hello, Keith.”_

“Shiro? It’s gonna be okay…we just have to get back to the castle.”

“We? …are not _going_ **_anywhere!_** ”

Pain. Fear. Primal fear.

A body constantly moving before his mind can catch up to anything that’s happening. A need to move _move_ **_move_** and survive and _god_ , not hurt him.

A clash of weapons. A struggle. The terrifying visage of Shiro’s face bearing down on him with such ferocity and rage. The searing pain and smell of burning flesh and then a bright white light.

\- - -

He comes to gasping for air. Comet is licking his cheek.

“What was that?” Krolia asks, expression calm but voice as shaken as he feels.

“I don’t know.” He takes the offered sip from his mother’s makeshift canteen even though his own is hanging from his shoulder. “I’ve seen it before, I—”

“I know.”

“—I don’t know why we would—”

“Sit down, Keith. Breathe.”

Keith stops talking with a hiccup, and blindly follows where Krolia sits them down on a jut of rock. Comet worms their head onto Keith’s lap in an attempt to offer comfort and huffs when Keith immediately begins petting them. The three of them had been hiking, scouting the area for resources when a flare of time caught up with them.

He takes a few breaths. His heart still feels like it’s in his throat and his hands haven’t stopped shaking. He turns toward Krolia. He doesn’t know what his face looks like but her brow furrows in concern.

“That was,” Keith’s voice cracks and he clears his throat. “Was that the future? Or like, a premonition of one?”

“There are a lot of things we don’t know about the Quantum Abyss. It could be set in stone. It could change.”

“I have no idea why we’d fight.”

“…would there be anything that could cause conflict?”

Keith shakes his head. She makes it sound like they will simply argue with words, and not that nightmare of blows, and pain, and swords.

“We’ve never fought.”

Krolia hums.

Well, Keith knows he’s prickly. His relationship with Shiro wasn’t smooth sailing at the start. He still doesn’t think it is, but they’ve come to know each other, understand each other, pick up on each other’s quirks, and recognize there’s been a lot of aspects of their life they’ve shared with each other that they wouldn’t have as easily shared with anyone else. That they wouldn’t share with anyone else. Shiro’s seen Keith at his worst, and Keith has seen Shiro as he is. And they’ve held on.

“Can you tell me about him?” Krolia asks.

“Huh?”

“About Shiro,” she says with a smile. “He’s almost always there in your memories.”

They dust themselves off and continue their trek. Comet is good at sniffing out which plants are edible and which aren’t. They collect some in woven baskets; berries, chewy-looking tops of prickly plants, long leaves with fibers good for crafting things.

“Well, he was the only one there,” Keith begins without inflection, and misses the small grimace that passes over his mother’s face. “After dad died, I got sent to a home.” A kid, raised by only his father and the desert, suddenly thrust into a world filled with bodies and noise he didn’t have the slightest idea how to deal with. Alone. “It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I had a temper and decked a lot of kids.”

Krolia huffs out a laugh.

He tells her about ditching class and taking a hover bike out to the cliffs, not knowing that one of the Galaxy Garrison recruiters who had come that day was watching him. He’d gotten scolded, spectacularly so, by his teachers and the home that it was a miracle he didn’t get pissed and left. When Shiro said Keith had the potential for the Garrison’s flight course, a lot of people seemed glad to be rid of him. Keith hadn’t been able to help the acute awareness of him, a collective burden, being pushed onto someone else.

“He never gave up on me,” Keith says with hints of pride, awe, and gratitude in his voice. “I don’t know why, though. I gave him all the reasons to.”

They’re back at the shelter—a home for who knows how long. They’re going to try and make some sort of stew with all their left over space crab (which thankfully doesn’t seem to spoil). Krolia holds out some chewy buds for Comet to sniff and decide whether it goes into the soup or not. The berries have been rejected and relegated to dessert.

“I feel I could spend my whole life making up for what he gave me and it wouldn’t be enough.”

\- - -

There’s singing coming from the sun room of his childhood home. A gentle, lilting melody with words Keith’s heard but never really understood. It stirs something in his memories, indistinct and rather distant, but fond.

From the doorway, he sees Krolia. She’s comfortably settled in the plush armchair, singing to the infant dozing in her arms. Keith wonders if this is a moment from the past, and if his father will appear beside her with a soft smile and a scruffy kiss to the baby’s cheek. He feels the ghost of it on his own.

“Hey.”

Keith startles when Shiro places a warm hand on his shoulder. The scene doesn’t change. Krolia’s eyeing them now with a curious, mildly annoyed look, but keeps singing gently. He gets a strange moment of realizing, _Ah, that is my son._

“Hey to you too.” Shiro smiles when Keith leans up to kiss him. This close, he can see the crow’s feet in the corners of his husband’s eyes, lines of laughter on his face. The shape of his jaw is still strong and handsome, as is the broad sweep of his shoulders. Keith runs his hands down them with a satisfied hum.

Shiro wraps his arms around him and snuggles up from behind, bopping his chin down on Keith’s shoulder a couple of times. “He’s going to grow up to look just like you.”

“Oh yeah?” Keith feels the grin tugging at his lips as he reaches back to thread his fingers in the starlight silver of Shiro’s hair.

“He’s got your chin. And your nose. And your eyebrows. The Galra genes are strong.”

“Don’t be silly. He’s got your eyes.”

“You like my eyes.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Aaand he’s up,” Krolia says, shifting her seat as baby Jude gasps into wakefulness then babbles when he recognizes who’s holding him. “Good morning, sunshine,” she coos, even though it’s two in the afternoon.

“Hey mom,” Keith says, coming into the sun room and kissing her cheek. Shiro does the same. “How much sleep did Jude get?”

“About three hours. He finished two bottles before that.”

Keith nods. “He’ll be awake for all of Lance’s party, then.”

“And fall asleep once it’s over,” says Shiro. “Baabaa!” says Jude and Krolia relinquishes him to his father.

“Who did you say is coming to this…party?” she asks as they get ready to leave. Shiro checks and rechecks the completeness of their baby bag with one hand while carrying Jude in the other. Keith peeks out the window as if to check something and a couple of minutes later, the sound of Black and Red’s immense machinery landing outside their home can be heard.

“Everyone.”

“Everyone?” Krolia raises her eyebrow. “I can’t say I’m looking forward to that.”

“Lance insisted. Or well, his mother did,” Keith says and takes the baby bag from Shiro’s shoulder then locks the front door. “Who’s piloting?” he asks him just as Red gives a low rumble. “You know how Red gets with babies.”

“Let’s go in Black,” says Shiro. “But she says I can’t pilot if I’m holding Jude—“ “Baaaaa!” “—so, Keith?”

“Sure.” Keith pats Red’s toe and his Lion takes it as the queue to fly on ahead. He grins at Black waiting patiently for them to board. She loves it when any and all manner of children ride with her, if the swinging tail is any indication.

They’re in Varadero within minutes. The McClain clan had cordoned off a small section of the town, including the sizable hotel and beach resort that the family owns. An assortment of intergalactic space crafts is crammed in the parking area. Others spill into the preserve, strange but innocuous among the trees.

There are cheers when Red and Black touch down, though it’s unsure where they come from. Several friends and family come out to greet them—baby Jude, shrieking with laughter, is immediately whisked away by several Blades who had been lounging by the shore, followed by Krolia, threatening anyone with death should harm befall her grandson. Lance’s parents, who are celebrating their Golden Anniversary, thus the reason for the entire gathering, greet them in their wedding attire, hemlines sandy and hair askew from entertaining guests all day. They look flushed and happy, uncaring that they’re renewing their wedding vows in half an hour and barely have time to freshen up.

“Keeeeeeeith!” a small blur of brown barrels into him. It’s Sasha, one of Lance’s many nieces, whom he absolutely adores.

“Hey there, big girl,” he says and hoists her up to his hip. “You’ve grown since the last time I saw you!”

“I gots some muscle throwing knives!” she grins brightly, showing missing front teeth. She probably shouldn’t be throwing knives.

“That’s awesome,” Keith says just as Lance calls, “Sasha! How many times have I told you to get a better favorite uncle?”

Shiro laughs as the pair bickers all the way up to Red to unload some wedding presents. He heads for the resort hotel and smiles when he sees Allura on the threshold, in a sun dress and a wide brimmed hat.

“You look lovely,” Shiro greets with a kiss to her cheek. Allura smiles warmly at him.

“You too. How was the flight?”

“Quick. No fuss. Though it’ll never not feel weird to have international clearance to fly anywhere we want to.”

She laughs and they go inside. There’s a corner of the reception filled with gifts. Several of the guests mill about the dining hall, helping themselves to the incredible buffet crafted and supervised by none other than Hunk himself. Several of the guests aren’t strictly human. The outdoor pool accessible from the lobby is filled with mermaids. A gaggle of Arusian kids run past with toys and laughter.

“So a blue bird told me you’re expecting,” Shiro says, following Allura to the room he and Keith will stay in for the night (or couple of days).

She rolls her eyes but her sigh is fond. “That man can’t keep a secret. We just got back from the clinic yesterday, and I didn’t want to tell anybody. At least not until I’m showing and they’re healthy.”

“But wow, twins?”

“I know. Coran is going to cry.”

There’s another round of whopping cheers from outside, and the unmistakable sound of the Green Lion touching down. “The Holts are heeere! It’s time to par-tay!” yells a voice that is unmistakably Matt’s and Allura laughs as she hands Shiro the keys to their room.

“Come on! Let’s watch a wedding!”

\- - -

It’s the first time they’ve slept on a proper mattress in days. The past several stopovers they’ve made have been nothing more than proverbial diners off the highway. This was a small planet commandeered by rebel troops, and not coincidentally, the rendezvous point for collecting Matt and continue the journey home. They resupply, air out their Lions, continue with the correspondences they’ve sent after deciding to go to Earth. Goodness knows their flight wasn’t without constant communication—with the Coalition, with the Blades, the rebel forces and all their allies over what to do after their unexpected clash with Lotor.

It’s quite possibly the worst time to be leaving for the other side of the universe, but also the worst time to be without a stronghold like the Castle of Lions.

But business is wrapped up at the end of the day, and night arrives twice on the planet. Keith takes advantage of it, the generous room they’ve been given in the town inn, and its blackout curtains to rest.

Shiro is sleeping on the king-sized bed after a strenuous conference call with several parties regarding his well-being. Keith is sitting up to his left, propped on pillows, reading his tablet. Comet is curled between their legs, dozing.

—until they raise their head, whining softly. Keith sets his device down and they turn in time to see Shiro gasp awake.

His breath is fast. His eyes are sharp, like he’s trying to remember as fast as he can where he is. His left hand flexes, fist open and closed, then he twitches in surprise when Comet’s cold nose meets his palm. Keith huffs a laugh, and Shiro turns to him.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” Keith says back.

He hands him a water packet with the straw in and watches as Shiro empties it in greedy gulps, before sitting up with a heavy sigh. He shifts just enough for Keith to place a pillow behind him. Comet immediately snuggles up to the crook of his left shoulder, and Shiro tangles his fingers in their fur.

“I dreamt of the fight.”

“Shiro…”

He shakes his head and Keith falls silent. It’s not that they haven’t found time to talk about it. They’re just not…the type to tell each other they'd sit down and do so. It finds its way into conversations, which somehow works out, but if Keith’s learned anything from the two years he’s spent with his mom, is that that has to change.

“I knew the fight happened. I saw it happen,” Shiro says, voice steady. His gaze is on his hand. “I just…didn’t know how it _felt_.”

Keith understands. He’s dreamt of fighting before, being chased—hunted. There’s a primal need to survive so powerful even in dreams that he’s woken up to a racing heart and buzzing limbs, filled with energy that suddenly has nowhere to go.

There’s a whisper of a touch on Keith’s chin. Shiro’s reached out with trembling fingertips to the yellowing bruise on his chin, then to the flaking, browning burn on his cheek.

“…I did this.”

Keith’s heart seizes and he presses Shiro’s hand to his face. “No, you didn’t—”

“I hurt you.” He feels with his thumb where the smoothness of Keith’s skin is interrupted by the scar. “With this. With whatever I said.”

“It wasn’t you.”

“He was me. I did this.” It comes out as a whisper, a hiccup. Keith gathers Shiro in his arms, lets the man shake against him. Lets him cling to him so tightly it hurts. Comet whines at being almost squished before getting up and resettling themselves at Shiro’s back.

“You didn’t, you didn’t. It wasn't you,” Keith pleads with Shiro’s rising panic. He cradles Shiro’s face in both hands and aches when he sees those steel brown eyes bright with tears he’s never seen the man allow himself shed.

Keith, terrible sympathy crier that he is, gives a watery smile. “If you’re gonna beat yourself up over this, then I shouldn’t be forgiven at all.”

Shiro’s shoulder, where directive and miasma had mutated the metal into consuming what little had been left of his upper arm, twitches as if he’d made to raise his right hand and hold Keith too. He shakes his head with a pained expression.

“No, no. It’s not the same—”

“ _It is._ ” Keith’s crying, and laughing a little. He doesn’t know. “I don’t know if you remember…but I’m gonna tell you over and over again until you do.” He brings Shiro closer still and presses their foreheads together.

“I love you.”

Shiro starts crying.

“I love you. I love you,” Keith whispers over and over.

\- - -

“Have you…ever gotten burned?” Keith is rekindling their fire pit. A couple of months into their travel on the space whale and the humble alcove they’ve taken shelter in is as much a home as the Castle or Blade Headquarters were, with blankets and other affects, mostly for hunting and food.

“By laser fire, yes,” Krolia answers.

“How did you treat it? Like…did it hurt?” Keith’s been various matters of beat up, but not burned, not even from the stove or hot glue. He’s heard of dabbing toothpaste on it, but he doubts that’s going to work in this case.

He’s scared.

“Same as any injury sustained in battle would. As long as it isn’t fatal, there’s supplies to immediately treat it. The same goes for laser fire.”

Keith swallows and nods. The fire in the pit crackles peacefully. It’s a still, albeit chilly day.

“I wanted to be a firefighter growing up,” he says, looking up at Krolia, who smiles and sit down beside him. Comet materializes and curls up by her feet.

“Did you now.”

“Yeah. Dad looked so cool. And I wanted to be like him. Whenever fire season rolled around, I’d get so worried. Oh, uh—”

Krolia nods. “During the hottest cycle of your planet, the land would be so dry that there’s a danger of structures igniting. He told me about it.”

Keith relaxes. “Yeah. He was so reckless. One summer, the Fire Department called telling me he was in the hospital because he breathed in too much smoke.” He smiles at the memory. “His nurses got so mad at him when they found out he had a kid like…I was eight. So he said the girl he saved in that house fire was eight too.”

_”You are that family’s hero, Mr. Kogane, yes. But understand that if you had lost your life, your son would have lost his only family!”_

The nurse had been old. And his dad had smiled sheepishly in reply.

Krolia rolls her eyes. “You’re like him, you know. You rush headfirst into battle.”

Keith opens his mouth to protest, but deflates at his mother’s smirk. “I can’t help it. When Shiro…when everyone’s involved, I just _act_. I don’t think about what happens to me until afterwards.” After he’s surprised that he’s survived.

“He’s special to you.”

There’s no mistaking who they’re talking about, so Keith sighs at her. “My life would’ve been a lot different if I hadn’t met him. He’s…given me so much.” His voice goes soft and charmingly scratchy. “I want to see him happy.”

Comet shuffles up to him and plops their head on Keith’s thigh.

“This is why you fight,” Krolia says, gentle.

Keith huffs without amusement. “Not for the mission? Defeating Zarkon?” Or what it had been for the longest time.

“We would have given up a long time ago if the only thing that should keep us going is the mission.”

Keith balks. “But that’s! Literally what the Blades are! Victory or death! Leave people behind!”

“Kolivan has his own way of leading.” Krolia shrugs. “You don’t think many of us think of family and friends while we try to survive? Undercover missions are the worst. You have to pretend you like who you’re working with unless you actually enjoy the occupation.”

There’s a beat of silence before she continues, low and solemn. “I left you because I thought I could keep the two of you safe. A part of me is sorry I did—”

“—Mom—”

Krolia hugs him, which surprises Keith for all of a second before he holds on just as tight, mashing his face into her shoulder. Her voice trembles a bit as she speaks. “If only to have been there while you were growing up. And not alone.”

They part, and when she braces her hands on his shoulders to look at him, her eyes are bright and dry. “But you wouldn’t be here, as you are. Strong despite everything.”

“Mom…”

“I have Shiro to thank for that.”

Keith laughs. He turns to Comet to ruffle their fur and laughs some more. “I wouldn’t mind fighting for a world where he can be happy.”

“Where you can _both_ be happy.”

The twinge of nerves comes back and it must’ve shown on Keith’s face, because Krolia continues. “You’ve seen glimpses of the past and the future. Do what you can to reach that. Be patient. Be kind. Trust, hope, and persevere.”

\- - -

“It looks close,” Keith says, looking at the looming planet. “How long d’you think it’d take for us to jump off safely?”

Krolia follows his gaze. “At the rate we’ve been going, about a movement.”

The ground quakes, and by now the peripheral glow is familiar. They brace themselves all the same as a flare of time washes over them.

The light fades into a soft sunset gilding his childhood home gold, or at least what he thinks is his home. It’s been…renovated? It’s still a two-story house, but it’s expanded. The second floor looks like it holds more bedrooms and then some. The first floor looks like it has a wonderful sun room that opens out to a simple and clean garden with…is that a greenhouse? The shed is larger as well, more of a workshop than anything else. The lot, while not paved, is made level with loose stones. There’s a mailbox, and planters framing the porch.

There are two figures on the steps. It’s him and Shiro, Keith realizes. They look older, much older, that they’re almost unrecognizable. Their faces are lined and sagged with age. Keith’s hair is short, salt and pepper grey and receding at the hairline. Shiro is beside him, balding and a little fat with liver spots dotting his temples, and—Keith’s heart skips a beat—two flesh and blood arms hugging what looks like a flowery throw pillow. He’s listening to Keith play the guitar.

“Again,” Shiro says, warm and gruff.

“I told you,” Keith hears his older self say. “I haven’t finished memorizing the verse chords.”

“Give me the chorus then.”

Keith readjusts his guitar, and softly, barely audible in the openness of the desert, he sings.

 _Listen when_  
_All of this around us will fall over_  
_I tell you what we’re gonna do_  
_You will shelter me, my love_  
_And I, I will[shelter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6wDOi2HrsI) you_  


Shiro closes his eyes and leans in to press a kiss to his hair. Keith smiles, content.

\- - -

“Are you ready?” Krolia asks. The planet within the Quantum Abyss is within jumping distance. It’s time to continue their mission.

“As much as I’ll ever be,” Keith says, determination is his eyes.

  
**END**  


**Author's Note:**

> shiro's arm has been stem celled back! i what i'd like to think, along with other cool stuff like jude is a tube baby who is actually keith's and shiro's by mashing their dna with a synthetic egg. i dunno. the future is out there~!
> 
> i also just wanted to see over-40 yrs old content for these two so bad but i'm not good at stretching things out so...


End file.
